So...more work with pastels. I haven't really done much with the flesh in color so I decided to try a portrait. I definately struggled with this one...I have a hard enough time with darker skin tones just with paint and pastel was no better. I feel that I spent so much time trying to get the colors just right that I lost the freshness effect of the pastel. I'm not sure if I want to try to work on this more or just pass it off as a one time thing and a lesson learned.

Both of these are still in progress. The photo above is not at all representative of the painting...I don't know what I did wrong. I'll try to take a new one this week.Below is the portrait I have been working on for finals. It has it's issues still. I intentionally chose lighting which would force me to use abnormal colors in the flesh. I knew it was going to be rather challenging so I am not concerned about the areas which need repainting. There are also a few minor drawing issues that are needed to bring it back toward a likeness. Plus I look pissed which is not what I intended. The other issue I have is time. I had planned to work for only one more session because I have other things to do. It may need more than that though.

I paint entirely too slow at home however, I am far happier with the results. It struck me today at school that it is no surprise that I have trouble concentrating there. I couldn't hear my headphones over all the noise in the room. Granted, they are crappy headphones...and I was listening to a lecture....

I do not have much to show this week except for the beginning of a burnt umber portrait. The image started as an under painting however, I liked where it was headed and decided not to add color.

Using a wipe out technique for this exercise, first I thinned my paint with odorless mineral spirits and toned the entire canvas with a wash of thin pigment. Next, I drew the basic shape of the figure with a thin brush and burnt umber. With a rag I began to expose the white of the canvas to create the light areas of his skin. I went back and reinforced the dark areas with more pigment.

I don't have any photos of my current works in progress but I thought I'd go back a bit with two drawings that I particularly like from first year. The first was a still life done with charcoal pencil in Josh Marsh's class. I wanted to look at this again because lately I've been having a lot of trouble getting the full range of value that I would like. So I know I can do it, I just have to try to get back to it. The second was from Jill Rupinski's cast drawing class. It's charcoal and white chalk on a toned paper. This was the drawing that really got me into white chalk drawings and I find I have some of the most success with this process.

Well folks it nothing else is to be said, this weekend was the most inspiring/informative two days I have had in a long time. I spent Saturday and Sunday with one of the most profound contemporary artists today. working from 9-5, two days straight with Desiderio, sure makes the brain wanna explode....but in the best of ways. Ill cut to the chase here. The workshop involved learning how to work from a photo as a painter. Saturday's agenda was based off of lectures, photographing the model, and the beginning stages of the drawing/painting. Sunday was a full 7 hours of intense painting full of critical advice by Vincent Desiderio.

The first painting here is the under drawing/painting before any real color is added

The 2nd image involves the addition of light and value on the figure, with the inclusion of background.

The 3rd image consists of the addition of color temperature.

The final version of the painting consisted of refining details, tweaking the color/value/anatomy.

Once again I have been super slack ass in terms of posting my current art. Shame on my...badThe body of work you see here is some of my in class as well as out of class projects.

This is my head sculpture in John Horn's Figure Modeling class. For a decent time it was progressing slowly, but now that I know what has to be fixed I will begin to catch in in time to have it casted in plaster.

This is my most recent figure painting in Jill's Basic Color class. This is after one session of figure work. I am happy with some of my color choices, but so far its an unresolved painting.

This painting was done in Pyform's Life Painting class. This is the result after 2 weeks of working. My big issue with this paining is how dwarfed I have made her. Due to poor figure planning and poor Patience, I jumped into the painting with out fixing my proportion issues.

This painting was done in my Still Life Painting class. After three weeks of work this was my end result. I am happy with very few things in this painting. I feel for the amount of time put into it, there should be a much better end result.

This is my most current painting which was started tonight during the 12th session of the Dirty Palette Club. (http://thedirtypaletteclub.blogspot.com/) It is an interior painting of the Academy's cast hall. Within one session I have managed to block in my entire painting and establish some of my values. This will be an ongoing project until the end of the semester, or until deemed complete.

Here we have a figure drawing done in Scott Noel's Life Drawing class. This was a one session drawing done using pastel on crappy newsprint paper. This is not the finished drawing, but due to my camera battery dying, this is what I have at the moment.

Here we have another drawing. This is a cast drawing of old Benny Franks done in Patrick Connors Cast drawing class. This turned out to be a pretty dame good drawing for only 2 hours worth of work. I will most likely be taking some of my spare time to finish this drawing.This is a thumbnail sketch of my next 4 week still life painting soon to come.Nothing to special, just to give an idea of what my composition will look like.

And finally my most recent drawing in Scott Noel's Life Drawing class.Here we have John the model from the back.